Margareth S. Aritonang and Haeril Halim, Jakarta – As Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo tops various opinion polls on presidential candidates, political analysts and pollsters believe that now is the best time for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to nominate the former Surakarta mayor in order to maximize the benefits for the party.
Most pollsters have indicated that Jokowi would greatly help the party to regain its position as the largest faction in the legislature. Therefore, the sooner the PDI-P makes the nomination the better for the party because Jokowi is obviously contributing to the increasing support for the party.
A recent study by Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), revealed that support for the PDI-P has steadily grown, to 17.6 percent in November from 11.6 percent last July.
According to the study, which was made public on Sunday, 29.9 percent of 1,180 people interviewed between Nov. 13 and 20 said they would vote for the PDI-P if the party nominated Jokowi as its presidential candidate, beating the Golkar Party, which has officially nominated its presidential ticket of chairman Aburizal Bakrie, with 15.1 percent of the vote; and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party in third place with 9.2 percent of the vote.
"It's clearly seen that the Jokowi effect positively impacts on the electability of the party. The sooner the PDI-P announces his nomination the better because leaving the decision until the legislative election will be too late and might hinder the party's increasing electability," said political analyst from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Ari Dwipayana.
Ari added that a quick nomination of Jokowi would also help the PDI-P to strengthen internal bonds while at the same time building a wider and stronger network. "Above all, making the decision now will help PDI-P focus all its efforts on winning both the legislative and presidential elections," Ari said.
Another recent survey by Jakarta-based pollster Indikator also found that Jokowi's perceived integrity and compassion for the people would allow him to gain 47.4 percent of the vote. Trailing behind Jokowi was Gerindra's Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto at 15.8 percent and Golkar's Aburizal with 12.6 percent.
Hamdi Moeloek, an analyst with the University of Indonesia, cited the public's need for a fresh face in combination with the perception of Jokowi's integrity as being behind the skyrocketing public confidence in him.
"Public appearances alongside Jokowi would probably boost Megawati's electability as well. But that would not raise her electability as high as Jokowi's because the electorate is seeking fresh faces," Hamdi said.
But when will the party make the strategic decision? "It all depends on our chairwoman. We have agreed to trust her to make the decisions on our presidential as well as vice presidential candidates," said PDI-P executive Pramono Anung, who is also a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, on Monday.